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On a wing and a prayer - Al Jazeera documentary on Boeing's assembly procedures

Keep in mind this was published over 2 years ago, and mainly refers to the 737NG:

Swanborough Farm (UK), Shoreham EGKA, Soysambu (Kenya), Kenya

Long video - nearly 1 hour. Did Al Jazeera really make it?

Will watch it later.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

They did; some good stuff on Al J - entirely free of US stranglehold on the media.

Swanborough Farm (UK), Shoreham EGKA, Soysambu (Kenya), Kenya

Just watched the whole thing...

While obviously not qualified to comment on 737 structures ....

1) Boeing probably did cover up (most big companies cover up, as a default position)

2) The FAA probably wasn't interested because they delegated inspection authority to Boeing, so some FAA seniors would have ended up looking incompetent (presumably same problem with UK CAA non-action over maintenance companies, etc - if you are JAR145 or CAA Level 2 then you must be good even if you are such a muppet you cannot wire up a KI229)

3) It's not clear that the "handmade" parts are [sufficiently] less strong than CNC'd parts, to be a problem, and there haven't been any hull failures in the fairly big fleet, so they will probably get away with it...

4) What does worry me is the reported corrosion issue, which suggests that the metal grade used was substandard and/or the heat treatment was incorrect, but that should get spotted on regular checks in service

5) If you buy a 737NG, you might soon be looking at some big ADs

6) I am totally unconvinced that the three 737 crashes (where the hull broke into 3) were anything to do with it; all 3 were pilot error (especially the Turkish one) and one might well expect all 3 to break in the same places

7) The experimental crash of that jet in 1984 doesn't mean anything because the vertical speed was virtually zero and it just ended up sliding along a smooth hard surface. Also they probably made them stronger back then.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
4 Posts
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